Question regarding kepub format

Question

I have a problem that’s specific to Kobo and would love some advice from anyone familiar with the kepub format.

I’m currently making epub files though I would like to begin sending Kobo kepub files since, as the guidelines explain, kepubs use Kobo's Webkit rendering engine rather than the default ADE engine. This not only adds a lot of enhancements, like reading statistics, but also resolves a lot of formatting issues.

At the moment I’m “converting” to kepub by simply changing the file extension from .epub to .kepub.epub. This works well except I don't get the cover thumbnail on the home screen. The only way I can get the thumbnail to appear is to add the "properties" attribute to the relevent line in the OPF: properties="cover-image". This causes further problems though since I'm currently making epub2s (with plans to switch over to epub3 in the near future) and the "properties" attribute isn't valid according to the epub2 spec.

So, my questions are:

Does anyone have any experience with Kobo's kepub format and what has your experience been?

If you are working with kepub, could help with a workaround for this issue of the cover thumbnail?

Additional note: I’m currently QAing on a Kobo Glo HD

Thank you in advance for any help anyone can provide.

Answer 1

If you use Calibre, there are a couple of plugins that can convert your epub files to kepub (not just by renaming them). Then when you send them to your device, it will properly recognize the format. I always used this method and I think it's the quickest and better way to solve your problem.